The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Limonium plant, botanically known as Limonium sinuatum, grown commercially as a cut flower, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Esm Julio’.
The new Limonium is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador. The objective of the breeding program is to create new vigorous and freely flowering Limonium cultivars with long and straight flowering stems.
The new Limonium originated from a open-pollination in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador in July, 2001 of a proprietary selection of Limonium sinuatum identified as Line 130, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Limonium sinuatum. The new Limonium was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador in January, 2003.
Asexual reproduction of the new Limonium by cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in El Quinche, Pichincha, Ecuador since February, 2003, has shown that the unique features of this new Limonium are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.